Bag-sewing clamp



(N0 Mode l.)

G. T. HARING.

BAG SEWING CLAMP.

Patented Mar. 25,1890.

u. PETERS. Pholo-Lithcgmphor, Washingwn. n. c.

UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

GEORGE T. HARING, OF BROOKLYN, NEW YORK.

BAG-SEWING CLAM P.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 424,109, dated March 25, 1890. Application filed May 28, 1889. Serial No. 312,423. (No model.)

To a whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, GEORGE T. I-IARING, a citizen of the United States, residing in Brooklyn, in the county of Kings and State of New York, have invented a certain new and-useful Improvement in Clamps, of which the following is a specification.

My improved clamp is intended more especially for use in sewing bags to close their months after filling with shot or analogous mobile filling. Ordinary sewing machines may be used. Such require the filled bags to be laid on their sides to effect the sewing. My clamp being first applied holds the mouth closed tightly and presents the clamped material favorably conditioned for sewing directly across. I'will describe the bag as filled with shot.

My clamp has two arms hinged together, one of which may be termed a double arm and which I have in my experiments made as a frame composed of two nearly-parallel bars joined at each end. The other arm is narrow and matches between the bars of the first with enough spare room to allow for the presence of-the material of the bagin acompressed or firmly-clamped condition lying in a closely bent or folded condition between. A slide, which I will term a ring, though it is preferably of a nearly-rectangular outline, is arranged to lock and unlock the clamp by moving it inwardly and outwardly. The clamp properly engages and holds the mouth of a bag with great firmness close to the shot or other contents and allows the bag to be laid on its side to be sewed. The clamp allows the upper edge of the bag to be turned inward before the line of sewing is made across the mouth. A handle extending from one of the arms aids to apply the clamp, and especially aids in guiding it, and consequently the bag, while the stitches are being taken.

The accompanying drawings form a part of this specification, and represent what I consider the best means of carrying out the invention.

clamp open, and Fig. 3 shows the same closed. All these figures yet described assume the bag (not shown) to be in an upright position. Fig.

I 4 is a transverse section through my clamp in a closed condition. Fig. 5 shows the same, a filled bag being also shown in the act of being sewed. Fig. 6 shows a modification not necessarily in the clamp, but in the position in which it is used. Fig. '7 is a cross-section corresponding to Fig- 4, but showing a modification.

Similar letters of reference indicate like parts in all the figures where they occur.

A and B are arms pivoted together at O. The arm A is narrow. A11 extension A beyond the pivot serves as a handle. The arm B is an extended frame composed of two nearly-parallel bars 13 B joined at each end. The space between these bars is somewhat greater than the width of the arm A. The space is marked 19.

M is the bag to be sewed, and P the needle of a sewing-machine.

W is the table upon which the bag is laid after its mouth is closed by my clamp to receive the stitches.

I have not shown the mechanism of the sewing-machine other than the needle. It will be understood that any of the forms of lock-stitch machines may serve.

D is a sliding ring or loop which is adapted to engage on the ends of the arms A B and firmly hold them together. The arm B is longer than'the arm A,'and is provided with a head B which firmly connects thetwo parts of the arm B at the end farthest from the pivot and also retains the ring against being lost when the device is unlocked by sliding the ring D outward clear of A. The bag is thicker along the line of the vertical seam than in other parts. I bend the two parts of the arm B at the point I), to widen the space, and thus accommodate such thicker part. This causes all parts of the mouth of the bag to be clamped with about equal force.

To use the clamp, the bag M, having been previously filled with shot nearly to its top, but leaving sufficient of the material of the bag to allow of proper closing, the clamp is opened, brought into position, and forcibly closed, embracing the soft mouth of the bag and holding it in the bent position indicated in Figs. 5 or 6. The ring D being then moved inward to lock the ends of the arms, the bag may be laid on its side with impunity. Thus clamped, it is laid 011 its side and brought into the required relation to the sewing-machine, which, taking hold with its feed mechanism, (not shown,) gives it the required horizontal motion while the needle P makes the required number of reciprocations and the stitches are inserted, after which the thread is out or broken and the bag removed, and the clamp being detached by opening its arms A B, after sliding outward, the ring I) is ready to be applied to another bag, and the operation may be repeated indefinitely. The work may be expedited by having two or more clamps to be applied to bags in succession as they follow each other through the sewing-machine.

B indicates a cross-brace which connects and stiflicns the bars B B Modifications may be made by any good mechanic without departing from the principle or sacrificing the advantages of the invention. I can use arms more or less rounded in cross-section or V-shaped in cross-section. I can employ a greater number of the cross-braces B", even to the extent of making the whole length of the arm B a cross-brace, or, in other words, making it a deeply-grooved instead of a slotted arm. Fig. 7 shows such a modification. I can have a handle on each I can dispense with the hanparallel and firmly unit-ed at each end, thehinge or pivot O, the arm A, connected to B by such pivot and sufficiently narrower than the space Z) in the arm B to allow for the material of the bag to be sewed, and the ring D, applying on the ends of A and B farthest from the pivot, all combined as shown and adapted to close the mouth of a filled bag and allow it to be sewed, as herein specified.

2. The bag-clamp described, composed of the arm B, having the two parts mainly parallel and having the head B on the end farthest from the pivot, the arm A, narrower than the space between the two parts of B, the pivot 0, connecting these parts, and the sliding ring D, permanently retained on the arm B and adapted to engage and release the shorter arm A at will, all combined substantially as herein specified.

The bag-clamp described, composed of the arm, B in two portions mainly parallel, but bent outwardly or swelled apart and again drawn together near one end, forming an enlarged space I), the arm A, pivoted between the portions of the arm B, near the space 1), and the sliding ring D, permanently retained on the double arm B, but capable of being moved thereon to engage and release the arm Aat will, all combined and arranged for joint operation substantially as herein specified.

In testimony whereof I have hereunto set my hand, at New York city, N. Y., this 25th day of May, 1889, in the presence of two subscribing witnesses.

GEO. T. I-IARING. \Vitnesses:

THOMAS DREW SrETsoN, CHARLES Fonnnsr BARTER. 

